The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority barred a former Cetera advisor for pilfering more than $45,000 from the accounts of three senior customers and moving the money to a mutual fund account in her son’s name.
Marianne O'Shee Smith, who had been in the industry for more than three decades, agreed to being barred as part of an agreement with Finra in which she neither admitted to nor denied the charges.
Finra said between February 2018 and April 2021, three customers, all of whom are senior citizens, gave Smith 10 checks totaling $45,100 made payable to a mutual fund company affiliated with the firm and directed her to put it toward their mutual fund investments, Finra said.
But without their knowledge or consent, Smith used the customers’ checks to purchase mutual fund shares for her son, Finra said. Smith wrote her son’s mutual fund account number and the fund ticker symbol on each check and sent them to the mutual fund company to be credited to her son’s account, the regulator said.
Finra said the customers were reimbursed in full after Smith's misconduct was discovered.
Cetera fired Smith in June 2021. She had been with the firm in Avon, Conn., since October 2016. According to BrokerCheck, Smith began her career in 1987 with American Express Advisors and worked for several other firms, including Edward Jones, before moving to Cetera Advisors.
Finra said Smith violated Finra Rule 2150(a), which states that “no person associated with a member shall make improper use of a customer's securities or fonds,” and also Finra Rule 2010, which “requires associated persons, in the conduct of their business, to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade.”